I understand the name change, but Fuse is just as generic, if not more than Overstrike. However, I do not understand the change in art direction, because the game looks extremely generic now. The gameplay seems okay still, so I'm hoping it is still good, but I was quite sad to see plain looking characters.

they changed it because they wanted the game to appeal to an older audience but I still feel that it was due to EA.

FULL QUOTE: “Maybe it was going to appeal to gamers who, we thought at the time, might be in their late teens. The industry’s changed quite a bit… We would focus test the game in front of a lot of gamers, and get their opinion. These are people that regularly play PlayStation 3 and Xbox games. We started to discover that everyone thought this was a game for their younger brother. We would hear this from 12-year-olds. So we decided that we needed to make a game that had an older appeal.”

I agree. When we were first shown the game it looked like it had potential. But now it just looks like a Battlefield / C.O.D. copycat with no visual identity. What happened to Insomniac? They used to think outside the box.

Clearly they focus tested the game on a bunch of fuck!ng COD playing morons. If they'd showed it to most of the people posting on here, they would have gotten a very different response. But yeah, EA are probably complicit in this.

why do they need focus testing? I suppose they dont "need" it but focus testing is a very important tool set the industry has begun to use more and more. often as developers you are too close to the project to see where some mechanics or ideas may be flawed. Focus tests and beta tests are all tool sets to help weed those things out. If Insomniac was going for a more serious vibe and yet everyone they showed the game to said they felt it was something for young players then clearly something is a miss on the game.

How about everyone judge the final product and not try and judge it based off of 1 early E3 trailer vs recent trailers?

To me, it's irrelevant whether or not they develop for Sony exclusively. Either way, I still get to enjoy their games, multiplatform or not. It's not like Insomniac used their PS3 exclusivity to squeeze the juice out of the PS3 like GG did with KZ2/KZ3.

Resistance 1 and Resistance 3(my fav FPS this gen) were brilliant, but they didn't break any technological barriers.

You want to know the reason LOGIC why they didn't want to be bought by Sony...because they liked the way they were free when making their games.

YET...they go to EA, a publisher who known to restrict you the most when making games for them and will end up running your studio into the ground.

Dosen't make sense...if Overstrike was made for the PS3 it would of been kept the same without changing it into a generic third person shooter and the fact it releases in the same month as God of War and Gears shows me that EA dosen't give a crap about Insomniac at all

Ummm...none of us have played the game yet. For all we know, the game would have sucked even if it retained the previous art style. I'll reserve judgement when I play the demo.

Btw, just because the art style is generic doesn't mean that the gameplay will be. *Looks at Resistance* The Internet is crazy these days. People freak out over every little thing and love to pre-judge based on short videos.

@ Commandar_Shepard They never left Sony as a publisher. Each game has its own contracted ties and IP ownership varies among titles, but Insomniac did state they are open to working on titles for Sony as well I believe.

As for the art direction. I understand the appeal of cartoony graphics, but its not my thing. I wouldn't judge a game entirely on the graphics. Borderlands and Crysis should be great examples of how graphics compare to each other of the old and new overstrike/fuse art direction.

I wouldn't say its 100% bad idea until I see it in motion in gameplay demos. Because the graphics look more realistic doesn't make me say well damn that is not a video game.

Fuse has ABSOLUTELY NO ADVERTISING what so ever. Not a single gamer I know even knows what the hell Fuse is. LMAO. And the fact that are having it released in the same month as God of War and Gears of War (Especially Gears of War considering it's another extremely popular third person shooter) makes it even worse. Marketing and release is up to the publisher I believe, which is in this case E freakin A! You have to be delusional if you think it won't fail sales wise.

Uhm yea, pretty much. Read the last 2 sentences of the first paragraph.

And it's a well known fact that Sony barely ever (or ever at all as a matter of fact) interferes with what their devs create. All they want is the rights to the IP's. Again, you must be delusion if you think EA doesn't interfere with their devs.

BTW, Both Resistance 2 and 3 both had pretty good/decent marketing. I saw billboards and commercials of them almost everywhere. But the final sales all came down to Insomniac messing with the formula THEMSELVES. There is no denying that.

2. just because EA is publishing this game, it doesn't mean that insomniac won't make exclusive PS3 games anymore. epic made bulletstorm, which was published by EA, and you haven't seen them stop developing exclusively for MS, have you?

They want to own their own IP. They've been in the business for decades and all they have to show for it is a bunch of great games that somebody else owns rights to. You may think of it as some sort of great betrayal but to those hard working guys at Insomniac, it's a means to finally setting a claim on something they created. If you don't like it, take it up with SONY for not letting independent studios keep their IP's

Focus groups... What was it full of cod addicts and bro gamers? How can anyone like the generic style of fuse over overstrike. Insomniac must be so happy making facebook games and listening to ea focus groups.

Their first mistake was going to EA, from there they went to focus groups and surely, when the game releases, it will be nothing but a hollow, shallow husk of what it was supposed to be; a vapid and generic piece of software showing only small bits of what it could've been.

What a bunch of crap...I love Insomniacs games but I'm not buying this, I want them to get low sales for this game so they'll stop working for EA and get ruined by EA

"You want a developer to get low sales...how could you"

Hey...I don't want to do this, I don't want to hurt the studio since there talented people but it's the reason why it's called tough love. I refuse to see them go down like Bioware and even Visceral games, if it's enough to make them "rethink" this Multiplatform approach with EA then so be it.

Look what happened to Borderlands 1. There were so many risks taken in that game, especially in an industry that was already filled with shooters. It was almost considered stupid to release a game like that. I bet even the developers thought during release date "aw man, our game blows! Nobody is going to buy our game, we wasted our time!"

Two and half years fastforwarded into the future: Borderlands sells 4 million+ units and creates a huge fanbase, leading to the development of Borderlands 2.

As for overstrike. I'm surprised because Insomniac are they guys behind the Resistance franchise and that is probably the most creative franchise I've played in my life. It scares me that they're in this situation.

I like the original direction of the game much better. Much much less generic than what it's become. I like that it was going to have humor and exaggerated characters. There's a million other realistic gritty shooters where I can kill aliens.

IMO...IG are best fit to create stylistic/toons...Games like R7C,Spyro...Perhaps they along with EA think they can comptete with COD/BF? I for one do not think they are a great fit for that genre/theme...

Fuse looks like the blood and life have been ripped away, no charm,style or personality, just what at least at this time looks to be yet another ***"generic"*** shooter, nothing that grabs you, nothing with a hook or worth mentioning, just bland/boring and another cookie-cutter of a game thus far...

Fuse is a game, and games are for fun. Once you have played it, then judge it as a package...But as of now I bet this does not even sell 300K units total. Borderlands 2 went against the grain, and they opened some eyes I hope...

Give me a new more in depth Crack in time and a new caricature/toon based action/platformer, that's what I feel IG does best...

IG took the unique revision (overstrike) and made it generic )Fuse)...

everybody just needs to stfu and wait til more is shown or until this game comes out. Just because this took a more realistic approach that doesn't mean its going to suck or that it won't have charm or it won't be full of insomniac staples...same could have been said about ND/Uncharted. ND could have made a funny bear that is based on indy Jones but they gave us Nathan Drake. a great character.